Lightning
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
—a physical phenomenon well known to everyone, especially in the East, and frequently mentioned in Holy Scripture, now as a symbol of the judgment and wrath of God upon the impious (Ps. 97:4), now as an image of extraordinary illuminating light (Matt. 28:3), now as a likeness of extraordinary penetrating swiftness. “For as the lightning cometh out of the east,” says the Savior of His second coming, “and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matt. 24:27).